From Its Hapless Beginning, Span's Reputation Only Fell

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A Bridge to Better Commutes
The opening of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge tops off two difficult decades of community debate, Congressional-wrangling, consultant studies and blue-collar construction that many times seemed to be in serious trouble, before turning into a mega-project success story.

Hodges's written text said that even if as many as 50,000 vehicles a day crossed by 1980, "of one thing you can be sure. . . . Traffic will move swiftly and safely on its way across this bridge."

There's more.

Hodges wrote that "with this new beltway, it won't be very many minutes from one place to another, all around the metropolitan area" and that the bridge will "save a lot of us heart attacks from fits of temper over traffic congestion."

In retrospect, perhaps he was a touch optimistic.

There was, in fact, a measure of praise for the span about the time it opened. A trade magazine article titled "Good Looks Count in This Bridge" sought to laud the Wilson Bridge for being a modern marvel. But about the most it managed to gush was that "the design emphasizes unity, simplicity and continuity."

In other words, it's boring, all the way from one side to the other.

The bridge lasted a pitiful 45 years -- only a couple of millennia shy of some of the spans built by the ancient Romans. The Brooklyn Bridge has been going strong since 1883, the Francis Scott Key Bridge opened in 1923 and the Arlington Memorial Bridge has been around since 1932. The Rolling Stones have lasted longer.

The Wilson Bridge did manage to outlast one other major structure built in 1961: the Berlin Wall.

Like the wall, part of the bridge will come down piece by piece over the next few months. The rest will come down next year, after serving as a staging ground for construction of the new span.

Another thing that limited the splendor of the bridge was that it wasn't exactly a gateway to anything. It didn't lead to, say, the foot of the Lincoln Memorial or to Manhattan. It didn't lead anywhere, really; it was just a dutiful link that got vehicles from one side of the river to the other.

No one ever crossed it and said: "Wow!!! Would you look at that??!!"

They crossed it and pretty much thought: Oy vey.

Nothing seemed to be immune from Wilson's bad karma. Its primary builder, Phoenix Bridge Co., went out of business the year after it opened -- after more than a century of bridge-building. The Wilson Bridge turned out to be its final project of significance.

It was a bridge only a mother could love. Or maybe a father. Dan Appel was one of the principal designers, and he declared it a winner.

"The tower of the bridge actually won a prize in 1961 for bridge excellence and design excellence," Appel said the day before his creation succumbed. He's now in his early eighties and living in the Mount Vernon area.

"How do I feel about it? I think the original design was innovative for its time, and I think it was a lovely structure."

"It's a bridge I love," Appel continued. "Unfortunately, it got beat to death by traffic."